Hello,
I’m having some trouble using SheetCam. Previously, I worked with ProNest, but recently I purchased a full license to try your program.
The main issue for me is understanding the new interface and workflow. I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to combine two parts for a common line cut, but I still haven’t been able to make it work.
Also, I can’t understand how to move a shape in CAD mode together with its holes — when I move the outer contour, the holes don’t move with it.
I would really appreciate any guidance or advice on how to do these operations correctly.
Thank you very much for your help!
Best regards,
Kakimzhan
Since you mention CAD function, I’m assuming you are using sheetcam v8. I’m also assuming you are trying to use the new AutoNesting and 2dCAD features. If so, my advice is “don’t” use those features for what you are trying to accomplish. To be clear, the new v8 AutoNesting feature is menu item ‘Nesting’.
btw- Sheetcam also has legacy (since v6 or earlier) ‘nesting’ functions in menu Mode / Nesting, and menu Options / ‘Job options’ / Nesting, both of these are very different than the new AutoNesting feature. They are also quite reliable, stable, and quite useful for 99% of use case. These functions however nest Sheetcam ‘Part’ objects, which map to a dxf import file. 'Part’s in Sheetcam will have one or more contours (shapes). You cannot nest 'Part’s in Sheetcam such that they share a common line (edge) in a toolpath, rather they will have overlapping edges if you align them as such. Of course overlapping edges and resulting multi-pass toolpaths are no good with plasma process.
I suspect you desire to share an edge in a toolpath between two adjacent shapes within a ‘Part’. To do that, Sheetcam has a legacy feature to remove duplicate lines (overlapping lines of same or adjacent shapes). See menu Options / ‘Application options’ / ‘Drawing import’ / ‘Remove duplicate lines’. Using this feature is sort of a crap shoot as to the connected lines for the new ‘open’ shapes that will result. So for that reason, I recommend you use with caution. My advice is to draw the shapes in CAD so you control exactly the closed and open shapes, and thus the toolpath that will result in Sheetcam.
The new v8 CAD feature, menu item CAD, has a lot of limitations, I’ll leave it at that. I tried to use Sheetcam v8 CAD feature to build you a test case demonstrating the above, but after 2 attempts at drawing a simple rectangle, with one hole, with dimension constraints, with fillet corners, it crashed twice and I wasted 20 minutes. I recommend you use a 3rd party CAD program to produce your dxf drawings.